IN the department of posts, there are 1,55,000 post offices out of which 1,29,346 are branch post offices functioning in rural villages. Out of five lakh employees, 3.07 lakh employees are gramin dak sevaks (GDS) mostly working in branch post offices. They are not treated as government employees but as ‘extra departmental employees’. The service conditions of GDS are very bad. They are paid a meagre monthly allowance instead of regular salary. Depending upon the work hours, it varies from Rs 2,290 to Rs 4,575 and a DA per month.